Windows 2003 Resource Kit Utilities

Many of the programmers and engineers who helped design Windows 2003 created tools and accessories that never made it into the official product release of Windows 2003. Many of these time-saving and headache - relieving tools are included in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, along with lots of technical details and how-to's that the manuals and online help files simply don't contain.

The Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit was on the distribution CD with the main operating system in prerelease, but we don't know whether it will ship on the CD in the final form of the operating system. If it's not on the CD, you should be able to find it from an online bookstore or through TechNet (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/).

Whichever way you gain access to the Resource Kit, you'll find that it contains tons of troubleshooting utilities. Here, we provide a brief list of the categories and encourage you to explore this resource further for yourself:

• Computer Management tools: Includes a wide range of inspection, control, and profiling utilities.

• Deployment tools: Includes utilities for the Windows Server 2003 operating system and general software deployment, including specialty tools such as a Security Identifier (SID) monitoring tool and a system preparation tool.

• Diagnostic tools: Includes utilities for monitoring or inspecting applications, hardware, the network operating system, and the network.

• Network Management tools: Includes utilities for directory services, interoperability, network administration, performance, remote computing, security, and storage management.

• Registry tools: Includes a plethora of Registry tools that can be used to perform command-line actions, such as creating unique queries for values; adding, changing, or deleting values; copying subsections; and backup and restore operations.

• Win32 Debugger tools: Includes programmer-level utilities for troubleshooting and debugging custom code and software designed for the Windows 2003 platform.

Tip 

To find out more about these utilities, search for the file named RKTOOLS.CHM on the Resource Kit Utilities CD or in the installed folder (\Program Files\Resource Kit\). This file includes an explanation for each utility!